You and Us
by L.TeddyBear
Summary: Her world and their world. It had always been that way, but when both worlds collide, the unexpected happens. HikaHaru, KaoHaru.
1. Chapter 1

**hello there! so actually, i originally posted this story up way back in 2008 as 'sandwiched', but never got around to finishing it. then because of the live action drama of ouran and me thinking that it's about time that i'd finish the manga, i rediscovered why i used to love this show show so much-well, not that i stopped loving it, but just that phrase of being so passionate and obsessed about something just evaporated, you know? and now, i just had the thought that maybe, i should come back and write this one once more and actually finish it. i have yet to finish a multi-chapter fanfic, so why not finally do just that. this one wasn't that long when i plotted it out, so i think i have a good chance of actually finishing it if a write a little bit each day. so here's 'sandwiched' re-written as 'you and us'. enjoy :)**

* * *

Opening the door to the first year classroom, Haruhi, wearing a dark purple sweater strode in and sat down at her desk. Pushing her black rimmed glasses up her nose, she got out her notebook and pencil.

Just then two identical twins stepped through the door way. A group of girls quickly dashed forward to greet them.

"Good morning Hikaru and Kaoru! How are you today?" one girl asked.

"Not very good. I didn't get much sleep last night," one of them answered with a yawn. "Kaoru had a nightmare and was screaming in his sleep too loudly."

"Don't say that Hikaru. It's too embarrassing," the other said, blushing slightly and turning away from his brother.

"Sorry, Kaoru, but you were just so cute then," Hikaru said, holding Kaoru's face close to his.

The action caused the group of girls to squeal loudly in a dazed state.

Haruhi sighed. Ever since she had started school the Hitachiin twins have always been playing their 'brotherly love' act in front of all the girls whenever they got the chance. She didn't understand what all the nonsense was about. To her, it was plain stupid. She wasn't even sure why the girls like it so much.

Now that she mentioned it, everything and everyone in this large and rich school was weird. Maybe it's just because everything here was a new environment to her. Although, she never minded that she was what these people call a 'commoner'. She could care less about fancy and expensive items. What's the need of it when you already got what you need to live on during everyday life? Well, she guessed that it maybe because the everyday life of these people contained more things than her ordinary life; things that she didn't need.

Just then the bell rang, indicating the start of class. All the students scrambled into their seats including the twins, who sat down on both side of her. She found the twins rather distracting at times. Okay, try most of the time. They constantly tend to look over her shoulders to observe the notes she would take. Sometimes they would even start poking her with their fingers and pencils as if to see if she was still alive. However, she always managed to ignore them every time. There was no way that she would let a couple of obnoxious ginger headed twins interfere with her studies. She had come to this school to accomplish something and that's what she will do. This goal required her to study hard and earn good grades and it seemed as if the Hitachiin brothers were born to hamper with it.

Today was the same. However, it was even worse. One of them was now toying around with her glasses and the other was ruffling her already messy hair. When the teacher glanced back, they would regain their form as two hard working students, keenly taking lecture notes. When the teacher looked away again, the both of them would start trying to distract her once more. She could now feel a vein beginning to pop out of its place from inside her head. She was definitely going to have a nice talk with these two annoying pests after class.

As the bell rang, Haruhi shot up from her desk and stepped in front of it, so that she now faced both twins.

"Why on earth are you standing there staring at us?" the one on her left asked. A devilish grin suddenly made its way across his face. "Don't tell me a guy like you have just fallen for us."

"Why on earth would I fall for you two!" she snapped back. "What I want to say is that the both of you have been annoying me since the first day of school during class. It's proving to be quite a pain and I'm starting to lose my concentration and also my patience with you two."

"Fujioka Haruhi, you seem to come from a very different background than the rest of us," the other twin on her right commented. "Is it wrong for us to take interest in testing out a new and unique student?"

Haruhi, felt her temper rising. "Testing? What do you two think I am? Your toy?"

The Hitachiins glanced at each other before smiling at her.

"To tell you the truth it's been a while since we got ourselves a new toy to play with," Hikaru remarked. "What do you think Kaoru? Do you think that this little guy here would be suited for the position of our new 'toy'?"

Kaoru nodded. "Why not? It'll be interesting to have a commoner as a toy to play with."

"I'm nobody's toy!" Haruhi shouted, but before she knew it, the twins grabbed her by both her arms on either side and dragged her out of the room.

"Where are you guys taking me?"

"To lunch of course!" the twins chorused.

"My lunch box in still in the classroom!" Haruhi yelled at them, trying to break free.

"Why need a lunch box when you have a lavish lunch waiting for you in the school cafeteria?"

"Plainly because I don't have enough money to afford the fancy food in this school!"

"Don't worry, we'll pay! It's a special treat for our new toy!"

"I'm not your toy!"

* * *

Haruhi sat down at an empty table with Hikaru and Kaoru and stared down at the food on her tray. It contained a deluxe bowl of salad, a plate of mouth watering roasted steak and even some orange juice in a wine glass. Rich bastards. How much of her allowance would this meal have cost her if she had to pay for it by herself?

"Don't just sit there staring down at it. Food is for eating, not for observing," Kaoru on her left told her as he stuffed a piece of steak into his mouth.

"Start eating already or else we'll have to feed you like a little baby," Hikaru said, reaching for the fork on Haruhi's plate. However, he accidentally knocked down the glass of orange juice.

To Haruhi's dismay, it spilled all over her sweater. What on earth? She forced back a loud, annoyed and angry groan. Someone help her before she ended up literally killing one of the twins…or both. Haruhi stood up and started wiping her sweater with some tissue.

"Don't bother," Kaoru said, also standing up. "There are extra uniforms in the nurse's office. C'mon, we'll take you there."

* * *

Haruhi let out a sigh of exasperation as she pulled the curtains in front of her, hiding Hikaru and Kaoru from view. The twins have been causing a lot of trouble for her ever since this morning and saying that she was starting to get tired of it was an understatement. She wondered what she should do in order to solve this problem.

"Hey, Haruhi, you forgot the necktie to the uniform," one of the twins suddenly stepped behind the curtains. He turned to face Haruhi, but only to end up staring with his jaws dropped open and after a second of being frozen to the spot, he quickly dashed out from behind the curtains, but not before she managed to catch sight of a blush streaking across his face.

Haruhi could only stared at the spot where Hikaru took his exit. She then blinked. Her eyes then traveled back to gaze at her own body. Oh…Well, okay, so they finally figured out that she was a girl. She couldn't really blame them for not knowing at first though. After all, she was dressed in an oversized sweater—she had no money to afford the school uniform—with thick glasses—she lost her contacts—and topped it off with a messily cut hair—a boy stuck gum into it the day before school started and the results of cutting it herself wasn't actually that satisfying. Not that she cared if anyone had mistaken her gender though. It didn't affect her studies, so it didn't really matter.

However, it seemed that it mattered to the two standing outside…

"Haruhi's a girl…"

"What!?"


	2. Chapter 2

**so here's the second chapter. i edited this one quite a lot from the original back in '08. but this is the last chapter that i have to edit/rewrite from the original since chapter two was as far as i got back then haha...okay, so i wrote over half of chapter three, but i never finished it and i have no idea where it is now...but anyways, hope you like this one :) **

**EDIT: i split chapter two into two parts. So what was originally chapter two is now chapters two and three.**

* * *

The pink curtains were pulled to the side and Haruhi, wearing the yellow female uniform, stepped out from behind. She guessed that she would now have to wear this dress from now on.

"Well, this is an unexpected turn of events," Kaoru said, leaning against his brother's shoulder. "Why didn't you tell us from the beginning that you were a girl?"

Haruhi shrugged. "I don't see why I have to. Besides, I don't mind being mistaken for a boy. I came to this school only to study, not to find a boyfriend."

"What kind of girl would say that?" asked Hikaru.

"My kind of girl," Haruhi simply answered. "Now if the two of you will excuse me, I'll be on my way back to class now."

"Hey, wait up," one of the twins called out, grabbing her arm.

Haruhi sighed and looked back. "Please let go of my arm Hikaru. I don't want to be late for class." With that said, she walked out of the room.

* * *

Hikaru and Kaoru could only stand there, completely puzzled. They then looked at each other in the eye. The both of them knew that the other was thinking of the same thing.

Haruhi had just easily told them apart without any difficulty.

This was the very first time someone had actually been able to tell the both of them apart without making a mistake. What's more was that Haruhi had known them for only a week and the three of them never really talked to each other until today.

But maybe it wasn't that way. Maybe it was just a fluke. During the course of their lives, no one was able to tell them apart. Even their own mom still makes mistakes. So it was impossible for someone who had just met them recently to be able to do so.

Yeah, it just had to be a fluke, they both concluded.

And well, there was only one way to find out if they were right or not…

* * *

_'Which way are the first year classrooms?'_

Haruhi had been wandering aimlessly around the large academy for more than fifteen minutes and still couldn't find her way to her next class. It wasn't her fault that this school was so big that she still couldn't find her way around even after a week here. Right now, she actually wished that the twins were with her to show her the way. She didn't want to be late for her next class. It would lead her one step closer to detention and she might miss some important lectures.

All of a sudden, Haruhi felt herself being swept off the floor. She felt a hand behind her back and one hand holding her right hand. Haruhi gazed up and her eyes met two gorgeous violet ones.

"What is a beautiful princess like you doing wandering around this dangerous and large hallway by yourself?" the violet eyed young man said in a dreamy prince like voice. "I can tell by looking at your eyes that something is troubling you. Please tell me, so that I may help you."

Who on earth is this guy? Haruhi had no idea where he had appeared from or why he was suddenly trying to charm her with his 'sweet' words.

"Would you please let go of me now?" Haruhi asked the blonde as politely as she could.

In response, the male student gently laid her down.

"Please forgive me if I scared you my princess, but please tell me what's disturbing you. Maybe I can be of aid to you," he said, kneeling in front of Haruhi and delicately laid a kiss on her soft hand.

Haruhi slowly pulled her hand away from the male student. "To tell you the truth, I do need some help," she said.

The pair of violet eyes suddenly widened and sparkled so much that now Haruhi wasn't sure if it was a good idea to ask this strange blonde to help her.

"I accidentally got lost. Can you help me find where the first year classrooms are?"

"Of course!" the male student quickly replied in a delightful voice. He then bowed down and introduced himself. "My name is Suoh Tamaki of year two. May I ask what your name is?"

"Fujioka Haruhi."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Princess Haruhi. Now, allow me to-"

"There you are! We finally found you!"

Tamaki's sentence was cut off by two voices from nearby.

Tamaki and Haruhi turned to their right and saw Hikaru and Kaoru walking toward them.

"Hey, milord, what's up?" Hikaru questioned Tamaki as he swung an arm around Haruhi's shoulders.

She stared at his arm and frowned.

"We didn't expect you to be hanging around here," said Kaoru, coping Hikaru's action.

She then turned to stare at his arm too and her frown deepened even more. Again, they were doing whatever they wanted with her.

A horrid expression suddenly spread across Tamaki's face. "What do you two think you're doing, touching Haruhi in such a way? Get your hands off her devil twins!"

"Why would we want to do that?" both twins said together. "She's our friend and toy. She sits in the middle of us during class."

Tamaki face turned a snowy white and he looked as if he was about to faint. "She sits in the middle of you two devils during class!?" What the twins said seemed to have flicked some sort of switch on because the next thing Haruhi saw was the upperclassman running around in a frenzy while clutching his head in a desperate state and muttering something incoherent.

"Is he okay?" Haruhi asked, genuinely concerned about the blonde's state of mind at the moment.

"Don't worry about him," reassured Hikaru.

"Yeah, he's probably lost somewhere in his inner mind theater," added Kaoru. "He's always been a bit crazy, but milord is a nice person deep inside."

"Milord? Why do you two call him that?" Haruhi asked, looking up at the twins, who were much taller than her.

Hikaru and Kaoru let out a snicker.

"No reason," said Hikaru. "It's only because he's the king, or president of our club."

"What kind of club?"

"It's called the Host Club," replied Kaoru. "It's a club that entertains and brings joy to the girls of this school that our lord, Suoh Tamaki, set up."

"That's not a much of a surprise," remarked Haruhi as she recalled the incident with Tamaki a few minutes ago. His 'charming' words and prince-like looks surely suited the role as president of such a club.

It also explained her why the twins act out their 'brotherly love' scene in front of the girls. It must have been a way to fund themselves.

"Would you like to become a regular customer of our club?" asked Kaoru, leaning his face closer to the side of Haruhi's face.

"You'll get to see us everyday even after class ends," added Hikaru, doing the same on the other side of Haruhi's head.

"No thank you," said Haruhi, stepping away from the two. "I don't have time to waste on such nonsense." She started to walk away but was stopped by Tamaki, who was kneeling down in front of her and looked as if he was on the verge of tears.

"Do you really think our club is a complete nonsense?"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. Hikaru and Kaoru were right. This guy really is crazy. Then suddenly, Haruhi felt two arms going through hers. The twins had grabbed both her arms and were now starting to drag her away from Tamaki.

"Don't worry milord, we'll find a way to get her to come to the club at least once," they said together.

"I'm not interested in your club business!" said Haruhi. She was now starting to get really annoyed at the twins' persistent effort to keep hauling her into doing something that she didn't want any part of. "I'm not going!"

"That's not an option! You will go!"

She was now starting to regret ever getting a scholarship to this school…


	3. Chapter 3

**okay, so a little explanation of what i'm doing here regarding the chapters. i've decided to cut all of my chapters into two or three shorter chapters, which is why chapter two is now cut into chapters two and three and the next chapter, which was originally part of chapter three, is now cut and posted up as chapter four. the reason i'm doing this is because it helps me to write faster and update faster. i really want to actually get this finished and writing normal length chapters - around 2,000 words for me - is not going to help. so yep, that's that.**

* * *

"Do I really have to go inside?" asked Haruhi, standing in front of a large door with a sign that hung above it saying, 'Music Room 3'.

"Yep!"

Haruhi let out a long sigh. She didn't even know why she asked. It was already obvious what the answer would be. She tried her best to resist coming here, but the twins made it practically impossible for her to do so. They kept on distracting her during afternoon classes. They constantly poke her, put their arms around her, hug her, nuzzled her and leaned their bodies against her. Haruhi found herself not having any concentration at all during class, not only from the twins, but also from the aura of jealousy that emitted from the Hitachiin fan girls. Not to mention the strange look of…disappointment of some sort from the boys in the class.

Haruhi gazed up and down the large painted door and let out another sigh. This was the price she had to pay in order to regain her freedom in studying. The twins reached for her hands and pushing the door open dragged her inside the room.

Inside, Haruhi found herself in a café with four handsome male students dressed up in waiter outfits. All of them except for a familiar blonde standing in the middle of the group were holding a tray with something on it, waiting to serve entering customers.

"Welcome to the Host Club," they said.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, you two are extremely late today," Tamaki scolded the twins. "Go and get change right now. The customers will be pouring into here soon."

"Yes sir milord!" said the twins. Both of them then faced Haruhi. "We'll be back, please wait here for us Princess Haruhi," Hikaru and Kaoru whispered into Haruhi's ears. They were leaning so close to her that Haruhi could feel their breath with each word. It sent an odd tingling sensation through her body. They then retreat from her smirking and snickering in pleasure at the furious expression on Tamaki's face.

Haruhi turned toward the group of boys and notice that they were staring at her with interest. One of the students with oval glasses was now even scribbling something down in his notebook.

"You must be Haru-chan!" a small blonde boy said in a cheerful, sunny voice, rushing up to her. "Tama-chan told us about you. He said that you were very cute! Isn't she cute, Takashi?" At the end of his sentence, he turned to ask a very tall and expressionless boy who nodded in agreement with a simple, "Mm."

Haruhi could not help but stare at the small boy who was practically one-third of his friend's height. How come he was so short? How old was he exactly? There was no way that he could be a high school student, right? He seemed as if he was still in elementary, but what would an elementary school boy be doing here in the high school division of Ouran?

"Hunny-sempai is a senior here at this school," the boy with glasses and black hair answered as if reading Haruhi's thoughts. He then turned toward Haruhi and gave her a strange, cold smile. "So, you're Fujioka Haruhi? I heard that you came from a very interesting background. You're probably the most special student at this school seeing that you managed to get a scholarship here, but you are also the poorest in this school as well."

Rich bastards. Did they always have to rub that fact in?

"That was not a very nice thing to say Kyouya," said Tamaki stepping next to Haruhi. "You need to remember that the beauty of a woman isn't only based on the outward appearance and status, but on the inside as well." Tamaki reached for Haruhi's hand, but it was suddenly drew from his grasp by none other than the Hitachiins who were already done changing into their attire for the club.

"Sorry milord, but Haruhi already belongs to us," stated Hikaru grinning, swinging both his arms around Haruhi, _again_, in a protective way.

"That's right," agreed Kaoru, doing the same. "We own her. She's our toy."

Haruhi pried Hikaru's and Kaoru's arms from around her body in annoyance. "I'm going home now. Please excuse me."

"Why are you leaving so soon?" questioned Hikaru, walking towards Haruhi. "Stay with us for a while longer."

"Just this one time okay?" said Kaoru, stepping in front of Haruhi. "We'll cancel our meeting with our clients and entertain you instead."

"That's kind of you, but no thanks," said Haruhi, stepping behind Kaoru. However, both twins quickly got a hold of her arms before she managed to reach for the door handle.

"You must stay even if it's for a little while!"

Now she knew for certain that the word "no" isn't in their dictionary…

* * *

"Would you like some cookies to go with your tea?" asked Kaoru, laying down a small tray of cookies next to the white, beautifully decorated tea cup in front of Haruhi.

"No thank you," Haruhi simply replied. She didn't want any tea. She didn't want any cookie. She didn't want anything to do with the host club and she certainly didn't want anything to do with the Hitachiin twins. For goodness sakes, she just wanted to go home!

She then felt someone leaning close to her and when she looked to her right, she saw Hikaru giving her a sly smile; cookie in his hand. "Wait, what are you-?" Haruhi's sentence was cut off, for Hikaru suddenly stuffed the piece of warm, crispy cookie into her mouth and without warning, bit off of the half that was sticking outside her mouth.

Haruhi felt crumbs on the side and also felt someone else edging closer to her from behind. A hand was placed on her head and looking up, she saw Kaoru lowering his face closer to hers.

"Ah, Haruhi, you have cookie crumbs on your face," he said before licking it off her cheeks.

Haruhi lifted her hand to touch her mouth and then her cheek and felt herself slightly going red. Things like this never bothered her. Why then should it bother her now?

"Who is that girl?"

"Isn't that the commoner, Fujioka Haruhi from year one?"

"That girl sure has some nerve getting such special attention from both Hikaru and Kaoru."

"Yeah, how come they're only entertaining that girl and not us?"

Haruhi was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable in the room. The atmosphere seemed to have grown a bit tense and she wanted to get out as soon as possible. She never wanted to take even one step into this room and she surely didn't want to be the one to disturb the other customers with her presence.

Shooting up from her seat, Haruhi quickly escaped being sandwiched between the twins.

"Where are you going?" the brothers asked in one voice, trying to catch up to her.

"I'm getting myself out of here of course!" Haruhi quicken her steps and when the tips of her fingers were just about to touch the doorknob, she was pulled back once more.

That's it...She had it!

Spinning around, she glared at the twins, anger clearly written all over her face. "Look, I already came here like you asked me to so just —"

"Fine, we'll let you go," Kaoru cut her off. "That is, if you can win a game."

Haruhi furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. "Game?" These two just thought everything was a game didn't they? "Look, I don't have time—"

"It won't take long," Hikaru promised. He then turned around to the group of girls who were complaining earlier. "Hey, let's all play game," he called out to them.

They all more than happily agreed and so Haruhi, who was more than just angry at the moment, once again found herself stuck with Hikaru and Kaoru again.

"Let's play the 'Which One is Hikaru Game'!" the twins announced, a grin plastered on each of their faces.

The girls clapped and cheered, excited smiles decorated their faces. However in just a couple of seconds the smiles were replaced by looks of those deep on thought.

"Um…This is hard…"

"You two are so alike that it's impossible to tell…"

Haruhi watched the girls for a few seconds then sighed as she got up. Okay, it was finally time to go home and hopefully the twins won't go back on their words. "The one on the right is Hikaru and the one on the left is Kaoru."

"Wrong!" Hikaru and Kaoru announced in unison.

They really were stubborn. They have shown her that so many times today.

Haruhi stepped past them without a word. Then a few steps later, turned back to face them and said, "I know I'm right and the both of you know it too."

Turning her back on them for good, she continued walking to the exit. The silence she received the whole time it took for her to make her way outside the room told her that she was right indeed.

* * *

**so there you have the host club! they will be making their appearances throughout the whole story here and there, so this is not the last time you'll see them. and yes, obviously, haruhi is not part of the host club in this story...well, **_**except for during one particular chapter**_**...but you'll just have to continue reading to find out what i mean by that. ;) thanks for reading and please kindly drop a review so that i know what you think and if i need to work on or fix anything! **


	4. Chapter 4

"Hikaru, what's wrong?"

"What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong."

Kaoru sighed as he threw the covers off and sat up, head turned to look at the form of his brother laying beside him with his face turned away from him. "If there's nothing wrong then why aren't you asleep yet?"

"Well, why aren't you asleep?"

The questioned shot back at him was laced with annoyance, making Kaoru absolutely sure that something was indeed wrong. He had an idea what it was too.

"It's about Haruhi isn't it?"

"Where did that suddenly come from?"

"It wasn't a fluke that she managed to tell us apart. Twice." Kaoru still remembered the confidence in her voice when she, without hesitation, pointed out which one of them was Hikaru and which one was him. There was just no mistaking it anymore. Haruhi truly could tell them apart. The question was how. They came across many people in their lifetime and no one was able to distinguish between the two of them—though he had to admit that they didn't actually try to make it any easier for others either, but the complete opposite—so why her?

Kaoru received only silence as an answer, but it was enough to tell him that he had been right spot on. He fell silent for a couple of seconds too. His amber eyes gazed at ahead, unfocused.

"It seems that our world has been invaded, Hikaru…"

Kaoru could tell that his twin was clutching the blanket tighter in his hand since the blanket that they shared was slightly shifted in Hikaru's direction.

"She's an interesting girl, isn't she?" he continued despite the lack of verbal response from Hikaru's end. He then cocked his head to the side in order to look at his brother. "Say, Hikaru, let's show her how fun it is to be in our world."

At this, Hikaru finally decided to turn his body around to face Kaoru, an eyebrow raised in question.

Kaoru merely just smiled down. It took a couple of seconds for him to get the message across—most probably to Hikaru's slow working brain—but Hikaru finally grinned back in reply.

"Since when were you the one coming up with these kinds of ideas?" his brother asked teasingly.

Kaoru laughed. Of course, Hikaru normally was the one to come up with fun ideas first and he just followed, but hey, he wasn't his brother's twin for nothing. He had his own storage of mischievous plans hidden in his head as well.

"So should we go surprise her tomorrow morning?" Hikaru asked. Even in the dark, Kaoru swore he could see the sparkle of mischievous back in those identical amber eyes. Kaoru noticed that it had disappeared for a while ever since they got out of the host club and remained unseen as his brother went by the rest of the evening seemingly with his mind detached from the rest of his body.

He grinned. "Definitely."

Yes, there was a new intruder in their world by the name of Fujioka Haruhi. This was new. They were never prepared for this and Kaoru had to admit that it felt like he and Hikaru were being threatened in a way. They were closed off from the world for so long. To them, they were the only ones that mattered. Everyone else were idiots and so they both held others at arms length. Then in middle school, Tamaki had come along and for the first time, there was a crack in the protective barrier they had put up between themselves and others. Their world and the world of others touched for the first time after Tamaki had somehow wiggled his way into their lives.

And now, something told him that Haruhi might just be the one to completely shatter the rest of their already weaken defense. A part of him couldn't help but think that this might be good. That perhaps it was time to really fully let someone in. But what would happen if they did?

Kaoru had no idea.

All he knew was that the instant Haruhi managed to tell him apart from Hikaru, a part of him had taken an instant liking and interest in her; a liking that surpassed that of the liking he felt when he and Hikaru found a new toy.

And he knew that he couldn't push her away.

* * *

**i hope that was okay. i'm kind of worried about making the characters ooc since i'm just getting back into the fandom after over four years. so do tell me if they seem ooc or not. and please don't forget to leave a review. they really encourage me :) **


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